Mendham Twp. special education school to relocate to Basking Ridge

MENDHAM TOWNSHIP — Life at Montgomery Academy in Mendham Township has always felt a little off-kilter, with nuns strolling the campus grounds, trees isolating the property and classes being held inside an imposing former mansion, school principal Tony Gebbia said.

An upcoming relocation could make that life a little more mundane.

Montgomery Academy, a religiously unaffiliated school that serves 90 special-education students, will move in July from its rented space at the Mount Saint John Convent to an unassuming two-story office building in Basking Ridge, which will be leased for 11 years.

"Students joke that the new place looks like a parking garage," Gebbia said.

But it’s a building, on Mount Airy Road, that will supply Montgomery Academy with everything its current location cannot: elevators, tech-friendly walls, air-conditioning and other modern amenities.

Since 1992, Gebbia said, classes have been held in the secluded Mosle mansion, a 66,000-square-foot Craftsman-style structure accessible by a thin, winding road on the border of Morris and Somerset counties. A convent occupies the main house, and Montgomery Academy rents space in the two wings that spread from it.

The special-education school draws students from 55 school districts in Passaic, Warren, Union, Somerset, Morris, Middlesex, Hunterdon, Essex and Sussex counties. Many students at Montgomery Academy, which has been in about five locations over its 40-year existence, have been diagnosed with autism or Asberger’s syndrome, or have attention disorders.

The deteriorating mansion has caused some problems with instruction, Gebbia said. Electricity in the building can be inconsistent, he said, and it takes the special-education students time to bounce back from any disruption.

Built in 1906 by sugar baron George Mosle, the building was purchased by the Sisters of St. John the Baptist in 1926. Since then, the building has also been home to an orphanage and a Catholic school, which was replaced in 1992 by Montgomery Academy.

Gebbia said it isn’t uncommon to see nuns strolling around the property, though the students and nuns rarely interact.

The number of nuns have dwindled over the years from 30 to three, and, in 2008, they completed a deal to preserve nearly all of the 143-acre property as a Mendham Township park.

An official with the convent could not be reached for comment.

Hearing that the building could be sold, Montgomery Academy officials made plans to leave about six years ago. The school has signed one-year leases since 2004, school spokeswoman Lisa Delventhal Marelli said, and it can finally leave now that a new building is ready.

The Basking Ridge structure is being outfitted to suit the school’s needs and will include an "independent living apartment" that teaches students how to live on their own. In addition, the new building has easier access; it can be reached easily from Interstate 287.